A multitude of laboratory immunoassay tests for analytes of interest are performed on biological samples for diagnosis, screening, disease staging, forensic analysis, pregnancy testing and drug testing, among other reasons. While a few qualitative tests, such as pregnancy tests, have been reduced to simple kits for a patient's home use, the majority of quantitative tests still require the expertise of trained technicians in a laboratory setting using sophisticated instruments. Laboratory testing increases the cost of analysis and delays the patient's receipt of the results. In many circumstances, this delay can be detrimental to the patient's condition or prognosis, such as for example the analysis of markers indicating myocardial infarction and heart failure. In these and similar critical situations, it is advantageous to perform such analyses at the point-of-care, accurately, inexpensively and with a minimum of delay.
Many types of immunoassay devices and processes have been described. For example, a disposable sensing device for successfully measuring analytes in a sample of blood is disclosed by Lauks in U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,669. Other devices for successfully measuring features such as for example clotting time are disclosed by Davis et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,628,961 and 5,447,440. These devices employ a reading apparatus and a cartridge that fits into the reading apparatus for the purpose of measuring analyte concentrations and viscosity changes in a sample of blood as a function of time. The entire contents and disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,669; 5,628,961; and 5,447,440 are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2006/0160164 to Miller et al. describes an immunoassay device with an immuno-reference electrode; U.S. Pat. No. 7,682,833 to Miller et al. describes an immunoassay device with improved sample closure; U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2004/0018577 to Emerson Campbell et al. describes a multiple hybrid immunoassay; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,419,821 to Davis et al. describes an apparatus and methods for analyte measurement and immunoassay, each of which is jointly-owned and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Non-competitive two-site immunoassays, also called sandwich-type immunoassays, are often employed for determining analyte concentration in biological test samples, and are used for example in the point-of-care analyte detection system developed by Abbott Point of Care Inc., the i-STAT® immunoassay system. In a typical two-site enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), one antibody is bound to a solid support to form an immobilized or capture antibody and a second antibody is conjugated or bound to a signal-generating reagent such as an enzyme to form a signal or labeled antibody. Upon reaction with a sample containing the analyte to be measured, the analyte becomes “sandwiched” between the immobilized antibody and the signal antibody. After washing away the sample and any non-specifically bound reagents, the amount of signal antibody remaining on the solid support is measured and should be proportional to the amount of analyte in the sample.
Electrochemical detection, in which the binding of an analyte directly or indirectly causes a change in the activity of an electroactive species adjacent to an electrode, has also been applied to immunoassays. For a review of electrochemical immunoassays, see Laurell et al., Methods in Enzymology, vol. 73, “Electroimmunoassay”, Academic Press, New York, 339, 340, 346-348 (1981).
In an electrochemical immunosensor, the binding of an analyte to its cognate antibody produces a change in the activity of an electroactive species at an electrode that is poised at a suitable electrochemical potential to cause oxidation or reduction of the electroactive species. There are many configurations or arrangements for meeting these conditions. For example, the electroactive species may be attached directly to an analyte, or the antibody may be covalently attached to an enzyme that either produces an electroactive species from an electroinactive substrate or destroys an electroactive substrate. See, M. J. Green (1987), Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci., 316:135-142, for a review of electrochemical immunosensors.
The concept of differential amperometric measurement is well known in the electrochemical art. See, for example, jointly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,455 to Cozzette et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. A version of a differential amperometric sensor combination is disclosed in jointly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,081 to Cozzette et al. (the “'081 Patent”), which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. The '081 Patent also discloses the use of permselective layers for electrochemical sensors and the use of film-forming latexes for immobilization of bioactive molecules. The use of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in sensor manufacture is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,827 to Davis et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2003/0059954 to Vikholm et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches antibodies directly attached to a surface having a biorepellant or biomolecule repellant coating, e.g., PVA, in the gaps between the antibodies on the surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,504 to Johansson et al. teaches a solid phase, e.g., PVA, with antibodies immobilized thereon and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,030,827 and 6,379,883 to Davis et al. teach methods for patterning PVA layers and are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
It is well known in the art that immunoassays are susceptible to various forms of interferences. Jointly-owned pending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/411,325 (the “'325 Application”), for example, addresses ameliorating interferences from heterophile antibodies by the inclusion IgM into an IgG reagent cocktail. The '325 application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
As immunoassay technology has increasingly been adapted to enter the point-of-care testing market, the use of whole blood as the test medium has increased relative to plasma and serum, which are generally used in central laboratory testing. When whole blood is analyzed, erythrocytes and buffy coat components are present in the assay medium. Those skilled in the art recognize that the buffy coat is a layer of leukocytes and platelets that forms above the erythrocytes when blood is centrifuged.
It has been found that in certain assays, various assay components, e.g., beads and electrode surfaces, can effectively be opsonized with respect to leukocytes. For example, with respect to an electrode surface, Hill et al. (FEBS 191, 257-263, 1985) opsonized a microvoltammetric electrode with human IgG for the purpose of observing the respiratory burst of a human neutrophil based on electrochemical detection of the superoxide ion.
U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2006/0160164 (the '164 Application), referenced above, discusses electrochemical immunosensors, the bias between whole-blood and plasma, and provides that immunoassays for markers such as troponin and the like are generally measured and reported as plasma or serum values. The '164 Application teaches that when these immunosensors are used for analysis of whole-blood, either a correction factor or a means for eliminating the bias needs to be employed. The '164 Application further teaches that certain aspects of this bias can be eliminated, including the bias in whole-blood electrochemical immunoassays associated with components of the buffy coat, and also the bias associated with hematocrit variations between samples.
As provided in the '164 Application, leukocyte (or white cell) interference occurs on immunosensors having beads coated with an analyte antibody, e.g., troponin antibody, and control experiments have shown that this positive bias is absent in plasma samples and in blood samples where the buffy coat has been removed. Thus, it appears that leukocytes are able to stick to the immunosensor and promote non-specific binding of the enzyme-labeled antibodies, which remain bound even after a washing step. In the '164 Application, it was shown that this bias could be partially eliminated by adding a small amount of an antibody to human serum albumin during bead preparation. Consequently, when a sample contacts the modified beads, albumin from the sample rapidly coats the beads and once they are coated with a layer of native albumin the leukocytes should not recognize the beads as an opsonized surface.
The '164 Application describes an additional solution to the leukocyte interference problem wherein the bias is eliminated by increasing the salt concentration of the blood sample from a normal sodium ion concentration of about 140 mM to above about 200 mM, preferably to about 230 mM. The mechanism that accounts for reduced interference may be that the salt causes osmotic shrinkage of the leukocytes. This interpretation is consistent with the leukocytes' impaired ability to interact with the disclosed immunosensor.
Notwithstanding the above literature, the need remains for improved processes for ameliorating effects of leukocyte activity in immunoassays in at least the following areas: immunosensor interference, most notably in the context of point-of-care testing; electrochemical immunoassays; use of an immunosensor in conjunction with an immuno-reference sensor; whole blood immunoassays; single-use cartridge based immunoassays; non-sequential immunoassays with only a single wash step; and dry reagent coatings.